Summer's End, Autumn's Beginning
by Guileless
Summary: He was in the ascending blood-red moon. A black slit of a cat's pupil in contrast.


"Dipper!" Mabel called into the walkie-talkie for the third time. There was a break of static, then a crackled response in what could only be her brother's voice yelling back.

"Dipper! Where are you?" Mabel tried again, her hopes falling in the middle of the sun-kissed forest. It was getting late, and she only became more scared for her twin and her great uncle, both having been missing for hours now. It was bad enough that Mabel and Dipper had ended their last face-to-face conversation with a fight unlike any they'd had before, but now Mabel was terrified it would be their last. On their thirteenth birthday, to make matters even worse.

The static cleared as Dipper's voice broke through. _"Mabel! We're trapped in a tunnel. There's no way out — "_

Mabel's chest clenched and her heart sunk to her feet. She stood as still as she could, straining to listen, but her brother's walkie-talkie had interference issues as he gave directions.

 _"The only entrance to the — at the northeast — structure under an — please — !"_

Mabel gasped, clutching her walkie-talkie and holding down the button to speak. "Dipper? Dipper! Dip — " The rest fizzled out into white noise. Eyes filling with tears, the girl hiccuped to herself and swallowed hard. "No, please no," she whined.

The usually so joyful twelve-year-old fell to her little knees, bruising them on the forest floor at dusk, and let out a frustrated noise. "Where are you? Dipper!" she yelled into the speaker, only to be met with silence.

She closed her eyes, ducking her head and letting tears dribble down her skin and stain her skirt. "Please," she begged to no one in particular. "Please let me see my brother again — I'd do _anything_ — "

The few leaves of coming autumn suddenly whisked around Mabel in a playful dance, the air chilling. A horrifyingly familiar tinny voice reverberated from all around her.

 _ **"Well, well, well!"**_

Mabel scrambled to her feet, skittering in fright and nearly planting her face into the ground on the way up. The voice echoed in the darkest parts of Mabel's mind, her heart thrumming wildly against her ribcage. She turned almost completely around before she saw it.

He was in the ascending blood-red moon. A black slit of a cat's pupil in contrast.

 ** _"Anything?"_** it challenged, the pupil moving down to observe the little girl shivering in the cool.

"You — you — " Mabel stuttered, roughly wiping away the moisture on her face with her baggy sleeves.

 _ **"Me! Yeah, I'm everywhere. Always ready to deal the cards and roll the dice. Speaking of dealing..."**_ The moon's pupil rolled backward, gone, and the atmosphere around her dulled and greyed out completely. It was all feeling terrifyingly similar to the nightmares Dipper had told her about.

A bright yellow flashed behind Mabel, and she flung herself around in defense, the color making her physically sick.

 ** _"The great thing about the Dreamscape is all the fun ways you can torture people. Pretty cool! I take weaknesses. For example, your weakness is your twin brother. If anything happened to him, well, you'd be pretty much a lost cause. Am I right?"_** Bill asked, back in his usual floating form and swinging about his glowing cane.

 ** _"You know what? Don't answer that. I'm giving you a glimpse into the future. A...business opportunity, if you like. Real simple. You're gonna wake up shortly from that stupid birthday cry you had and go into that forest. Piney and Sixer are definitely missing, I'll tell you that. From there, you're gonna make a decision. It's gonna look like this: you either summon me, or you don't. You do, you get a shot at bringing those two idiots back, but on my conditions. You don't...well, say sayonara to them forever, 'cause I'm your last hope, kid!"_** With a trenchant laugh, Bill tipped his hat and disappeared into a cloud of cerulean flames engulfing him.

Mabel shot up from her bed, gasping for breath and soaked with sweat. The bed creaked beneath her and orange light poured into the room from the window. She checked the clock and stumbled off of her bed, tripping over a large object. Looking back, she collected it with shaking hands. The scrapbook.

Swallowing hard, Mabel grabbed her backpack and the corresponding walkie-talkie. She ventured out of the Mystery Shack, no one at her side, just as the sun kissed the day goodbye and the moon rose to claim its rightful spot in the approaching nighttime. Tonight, she was determined to save her brother and ready to seal a deal with a demon.

 _Thanks for reading! Inspired by the holy MoringMark's awesomely cool comic right here: tumblr post/130338422568#notes_

 _I took some liberties, yeah. I actually had the same idea of Mabel getting really desperate to save her brother and having only Bill as a resource, so - ahh! I don't like it but I also love it to death. oh man. I'm dead on the 12th. Please leave some feedback, I'd love it!_


End file.
